What a wonderful view. Alexandra Palace sits high atop Muswell Hill offering great panoramic views of the City and surrounding area; which is a pity because the backgammon weekend is held well inside the Palace in a great hall offering no natural light or access to the views. Like battery chickens we shall only see the light of day when the day is over - 9:30pm when the last die is cast.

After 10 days of this sunlight starved existence I shall emerge, pallid, like a sub mariner, my hard gained tan courtesy of the few, scarce days the golden orb penetrated the shade of my back garden, faded beyond recognition. Once again, my white bits will be all my bits!

Nine years old, Petr Petras (Czech) Beginner's Junior Bronze Medalist.

I shall arrive in Turkey for my holidays in early September a typical, white Englishman thus enforcing the opinion of my Turkish friends that the sun never shines in England - at least, it never appears to shine on me. Well, who cares about seeing the sunshine when there are ten days of backgammon? Not me. I'm looking forward to it all. This weekend we have two separate tournaments - The Beginner's and the (imaginatively named) Weekend Tournament. The former lasts just one day, the Saturday; after all, we don't want to tire out the poor dears do we? Consisting of 4 rounds of 5-point matches, the winner, second and third placed entrants will be allowed to enter the second day of the Weekend Tournament which started Saturday and finishes Sunday in which the entrants will play 6 rounds of 11-points. So, how did the first day go?

Beginner's (36) It really is quite daunting for players entering their first ever tournament especially if you've yet to locate the doubling cube let alone use it. But, use it you must to maximise your winning potential. With this goal in mind, Gary Lee used it effectively to take 1st place and the Beginner's Gold with 4/4 wins with his opponents scoring 10 wins, leaving Robert Kimchi with 4/4 and 7 opponents wins in 2nd place with Silver and, also with 4/4 but with 6 opponent wins, Hugh Swann taking the bronze.

Robert Kimchi, Silver; Gary Lee, Gold; Hugh Swann, Bronze

The top Junior Players were Gold, Rajit Gholap with 2/4-10, Silver Josiah Lutton with 2/4-7 and with Bronze our youngest entrant Petr Petras with 1/4-7. Petr enjoyed the support of his family; father Milan (playing in the same tournament) being ousted out of the medals by Gary Lee in the final round, and his mother who dutifully watched his matches.

Rajit Gholap and his proud mother admiring his Beginner's Junior Gold Medal

All of these Juniors gave a good account of themselves and, hopefully, gained enough enjoyment to consider persuing backgammon seriously post MSO4. Once they realise it's far more exciting than chess they're bound to make the transition (but don't say I said so, I'm not too sure but I think there's a bit of chess being played here this week and I don't want to get into trouble).

Weekend (30) Part I
This is where the big boys play - and a few big girls as well (not all of them female either; if you get my drift). Six rounds - three a day - of 11-point matches. Tough, hard fought matches with no quarter given and none taken. Those who have survived the day with a full scorecard of wins are: John Broomfield (Bronze 1998), John Clark (Grandmaster) and Konrad Scheffler (yet to gain an Olympiad title). Although these three are the favourites the field is still wide open as 5 wins will be enough to win the tournament should any of these fail to win all their matches on Day Two - Sunday.

Can they carry on in the same vein tomorrow? Of course they can't; it's winner plays winner so after each round they're suffering 50% losses. Will anyone complete the tournament on maximum wins? Tune in tomorrow for Part II and the final results.

Meanwhile, here are the Beginner's Tournament full results.